Berg Insight has calculated that the number of smart electricity meters installed across the USA and Canada will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% between 2010 and 2016, reaching 87.4 million in five years.

This means that smart meter penetration among residential electricity customers in North America will have increased from around 20% now to more than 50% by the end of 2016. By 2020, approaching 100% smart meter penetration is expected.

Following problems with BlackBerry online services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since Monday, RIM has now confirmed that users in the Americas are also suffering delays.

Email, web access and BlackBerry Messenger have all been affected.

O2 UK has announced plans to test a new service called O2 Connect. A number of consumer and business customers, along with attendees at Wired 2011, will be invited to join the trial.

O2 Connect will let customers with an iPhone or Android smartphone make UK calls and send text messages over WiFi using their regular mobile number.

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Sony Ericsson for the phone specifications shown on its website.

The web page for the Xperia X8 smartphone claimed ‘Standby time (up to) 446 hours’ with a note below reading ‘Battery performance may vary depending on network conditions and configuration, and phone usage’. An ASA investigation was launched after receiving a complaint that suggested the standby time for the smartphone was substantially less than the advertised figure.

It’s time for another round-up of mobile industry news headlines from the past seven days.

As well as paying tribute to Steve Jobs, our podcast covers BlackBerry’s problems, 3G cross-network roaming on Everything Everywhere, 4G in the UK, Swype’s acquisition by Nuance, the mystery of Alien Dalvik, dodgy advertising and a new Nokia ringtone.